Nigel Farage's by-election blunder could be game over for Reform. It's that bad – Christine Jardine
Nigel Farage’s looming contest with Count Binface may result in Labour’s biggest rivals being comprehensively discredited
Of all the scenarios Nigel Farage envisaged when he announced his resignation and intention to stand in the resultant Clacton by-election, I doubt if he anticipated the one he’s facing. Or that the consequences of his political gamble might backfire spectacularly on his party.
He may have been looking forward to a highly publicised campaign to snatch the current media spotlight away from Labour and reboot his party’s declining fortunes. Or perhaps he thought it would distract us all from the ever-burgeoning list of financial controversies engulfing Reform and halt the standards inquiry into his undeclared £5 million ‘gift’.
It hasn’t quite worked out that way. Other parties’ decisions just to ignore his tantrum and deny Farage the oxygen of publicity have instead reduced the whole affair to near farce.
A pyrrhic victory awaits
Reform’s main opponent on heavyweight broadcast platforms like Newsnight is currently a man in a fake dustbin helmet whose previous policies include nationalising Adele and capping the price of 99 flake cones at 99p. It is a satirist’s dream.
And while Nigel Farage and Reform may now feel assured of winning again in Clacton, it is likely to be the most pyrrhic of victories. Gone may be the opportunity to return to pre-Makerfield polling rates and positive prospects in the next general election.
There will be no opportunity to put the government on the spot, make life difficult for the Tories or multi-party platforms on which to challenge all opponents. There is not even likely to be much publicity. Unless, of course, Binface somehow wins.
Instead, the people of Clacton will be put through the inconvenience of a by-election for which the taxpayers will foot the bill. It’s likely that the biggest, perhaps the only, winners will be Labour and Andy Burnham.
READ MORE: Malcolm Offord: Parties refusing to stand against Nigel Farage is an 'establishment stitch-up'
Burnham’s new government will be the big story
How much media coverage is going to be wasted on a meaningless by-election when there is a new Prime Minister recommitting his party to the policies and goals they were mandated to achieve in 2024?
Who will be interested in Farage versus Binface when there will be a new Cabinet to pour over, policy commitments, opinion poll changes, and the first steps on the ‘King of the North’ in the heart of the south to analyse?
And when it’s all over, if Clacton sends Farage back to parliament, the currently paused standards inquiry will start up again. There will be the same questions for Farage to answer and controversies for his party to overcome. Except there will now be another question: “Just what exactly has been gained by this extraordinarily ill-thought-through gesture?”
Nothing might be the answer for Reform, while for the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats it may be an increase in support from well-intentioned voters tired of Reform’s histrionics.
But for Labour, it may mean a new political narrative in which they are able to look forward more positively to the next election, secure in the knowledge that their most likely threat has been comprehensively discredited.
The tone and language Farage used during his ‘press conference’ – which contained no press – reminded me of a Prime Ministerial speech from a dystopian TV show. It remains to be seen whether Reform will be commissioned for the remainder of the season or cancelled.
Christine Jardine is Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West
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